A long list of families waiting for child care help

Despite unending talk on Beacon Hill about the importance of early education, about 40,640 children continue to languish on the statewide wait list for financial assistance that could allow them to attend child care, preschool, after-school programs or summer camps.

Until last fall, Zilma Arroyo was spending more than a third of her $800 biweekly paycheck to put her 3-year-old son in day care while she was at work. Her older boys, 7 and 11, had to come home to an empty house after school.

But in October, after the state unfroze a statewide wait list for low-income families seeking child care assistance, Arroyo received vouchers that allowed her to get subsidized preschool for her youngest and after-school programs for the older two.

Arroyo, of Brockton, who applied for the vouchers years ago, is one of the lucky ones.

Despite near-constant talk on Beacon Hill about the importance of early education, about 40,640 children continue to languish on the statewide wait list for financial assistance that could allow them to attend child care, preschool, after-school programs or summer camps. Some state officials, including Gov. Deval Patrick, are now pushing the Legislature to find more money for the programs, but some in the child care field say even those efforts won’t keep up with the need they’re seeing.

“I have wait-list applications come in every day,” said Cyndi Couto, program director for P.A.C.E. Child Care Works, a referral agency that works with families in southeastern Massachusetts and south of Boston. “There is such a need for care in Massachusetts, it’s crazy.”

Meeting that need is an expensive proposition. After persuading the Legislature to allocate $15 million toward early education subsidies for more more than 2,000 children last year, Patrick is seeking to add another $15 million in the upcoming state budget to further expand “birth to preschool” programs – a move that the administration says would allow it to open access for an additional 1,700 children and move it closer to its goal of providing child care assistance to any family that needs it.

“We would like to have no wait list,” said Thomas Weber, commissioner of the state Department of Early Education and Care. “We would like to be able to serve every child.”

CHILD CARE SUBSIDIES

What’s available: The state Department of Early Education and Care administers two kinds of income-eligible child care subsidies through the statewide wait list. Vouchers, the better-known type, can be used at any contracted child care provider, but those providers are not required to accept them. Contract slots, on the other hand, are guaranteed spots in a day care, but they’re only good at the provider who holds the contract. The state also provides subsidies for families receiving services through the Department of Transitional Assistance, but they are not administered through the wait list.

Page 2 of 4 - Who’s eligible: As a general rule, families are considered financially eligible for vouchers or contract slots if they have a gross household income at or below 50 percent of the state median income, currently $51,387 for a family of four. If a family’s income increases, it will remain eligible until it passes 85 percent of the state median income.

Other requirements: In addition to meeting financial eligibility requirements, parents must demonstrate a “service need,” such as searching for a job, working at a job, attending school or taking a job-training courses.

What the family pays: Parents may be responsible for a sliding-scale co-payment based on their family size and income.

What the provider receives: The reimbursement rate that providers receive for a voucher or contract slot is less than half the money they would get for an unsubsidized child, according to a semiannual survey by the Department of Early Education and Care. Last year, the state increased the reimbursement rates across the board by 2.3 percent. It was the first rate increase in four years.

But some in the child care field say the state also needs to increase its reimbursement rates to encourage more private child care providers to accept vouchers, and allocate more money for referral agencies, whose coordinators are now struggling under more than twice the recommended caseload.

“Massachusetts was the leader in the country – recognized as the leader in the country – and that’s no longer the case at all,” said Sheri Adlin, executive director of South Shore Stars, the largest provider of state-subsidized child care in the Quincy area. “There has not been a serious commitment, an investment in quality or an expansion, in a very long time.”

The push for increased access to subsidized care comes as child care costs continue to climb and more parents see the value of early education. Massachusetts ranks fourth in the nation in terms of the share of household income that goes toward child care for infants, with a year of care at a day care center costing an average of $16,430, according to a 2013 report from Child Care Aware of America.

Page 3 of 4 - The report found that married couples with an infant in Massachusetts spend an average of 15.1 percent of their income on child care, while single mothers with an infant pay, on average, 59.6 percent of what they make on care.

Child care providers say those costs are increasingly out of reach for families whose paychecks have not kept up. In some cases, parents who could increase their family income with a new job must stay home to care for their children instead.

“In order for a parent really to be a productive member of the workforce, they need to know their children are in a safe, secure, nurturing and academically enriching environment,” said Laureen Browning, vice president for youth development at the South Shore YMCA.

The recent freeze on income-eligible child care assistance – which must compete for state dollars against transportation, public safety and mental health needs – has not helped.

At Community Care for Kids, the referral agency for Quincy and surrounding towns, the current wait list of 2,032 children dates back to March 2012 – meaning some families have waited nearly two years for a subsidy.

Now that vouchers are being handed out again, the state’s child care referral agencies, which screen families to make sure they’re eligible for child care subsidies and connect them with resources, say they need more money as well.

Beth Ann Strollo, executive director of Quincy Community Action Programs, which includes the Community Care for Kids referral agency, said referral coordinators in Massachusetts handle an average of 775 families, more than twice the recommended maximum of 350.

Strollo said the caseload makes a big difference when a coordinator needs to act quickly to help a struggling family that finds itself at a crossroads.

“They have a job offer, they’re trying to start their new job and if they don’t have their voucher in hand, they can’t start,” she said. “There are times when if you can’t be able to turn that around and get everything in place quickly, they have to say no to a job, and we don’t want that to happen.”

For Arroyo, the Brockton mother, child care vouchers have made a difference. Instead of rushing home from her job as a classroom aide for the Boston Public Schools, the 36-year-old single mother now has time to do chores before picking up her three children for the evening.

Even better: Arroyo’s youngest son, who has been struggling with delayed speech development, caught up with his classmates after just a few weeks in his new preschool program.

“My baby is talking like a big boy already,” she said. “It was like a blessing.”

Page 4 of 4 - Contact Neal Simpson at nesimpson@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @NSimpson_Ledger.